Baseball Announces 2014 Schedule

Dec 16, 2013

CORPUS CHRISTI – The Texas A&M – Corpus Christi baseball team has released its 2014 schedule with 26 opportunities to catch the Islanders in action at home. The team is coming off a season in which it finished second in the Southland — the best in program history.

"Overall I'm really excited about the 2014 schedule," head coach Scott Malone said. "It's definitely going to be a challenge, but I think the growth of the program and the talent level of the student-athletes in our program now makes for a challenge that we are ready for."

The Islanders will kick off the season on the road with a four-game series against Texas-Pan American on Feb. 14-16 before playing in a big midweek game against Texas on Feb. 18 in Austin. Last season, the matchup between A&M – Corpus Christi and the Longhorns was rained out.

BYU, UTSA and TCU will then all make their way down to the Coastal Bend to play in the Kleberg Bank College Classic. The Islanders will see the first action of the tournament, as they will pair up with BYU in a doubleheader on Feb. 20. A&M – Corpus Christi will matchup with the Roadrunners on Feb. 21 and the Horned Frogs on Feb. 22 to complete their play in the Classic.

"It's going to be an uphill battle," Malone said of the start to the schedule. "Last year there was this security blanket that we were playing so many games at the beginning at Chapman Field, and I think it helped us get off to a good start. Now we are going to have to do it on the road and in a very difficult way. I think the stretch of seven consecutive road games might be the toughest in program history."

Next, the Islanders will hit the road for their longest stretch of games away from home, starting with back-to-back midweek games. They will first travel to San Marcos, Texas, for a Feb. 25 pairing with Texas State before continuing up I-35 to take on Big 12 foe Baylor on Feb. 26.

A&M – Corpus Christi will continue its northern trek for a weekend series with UT Arlington, spanning from Feb. 28 through March 2 and will include a doubleheader on Saturday. The Islanders will then make their way back to the Coastal Bend with a Mar. 4 contest against Houston at Cougar Field.

Following the first 16 games, the Islanders will finally host a game at Chapman Field, starting with a three-game series with Valparaiso from March 7-9. A&M – Corpus Christi will then head back to Houston for a midweek bout with Rice (March 12).

The Islanders will then be back on home turf for a while, hosting a season-high eight consecutive home games from March 14-23. They will kick off the stretch of games at Chapman Field with the start of Southland Conference play, as Central Arkansas will visit from March 14-16.

It will then be a quick midweek doubleheader against Texas-Pan American on March 18, before finishing up the homestretch against Southland opponent Southeastern Louisiana that weekend (March 21-23).

Then it's back to the asphalt for A&M – Corpus Christi, as it will play UTSA on March 25 in San Antonio before leaving the confines of the Texas border for the first time of the season to take on a new member to the Southland in the form of New Orleans on March 28-30.

The Islanders will then hightail it back south, heading down to Edinburg, Texas, once again for its final matchup with the Broncs of UTPA (April 2). That weekend, April 4-6, the squad will be back at home to take on Stephen F. Austin.

A quick nonconference game against UTSA will be played at Chapman Field before the Islanders hit the road on back-to-back weekends for Southland play against Houston Baptist (April 11-13) and Northwestern State (April 17-19).

Houston Victoria will make the quick trip down to the Island for A&M – Corpus Christi's last nonconference tilt of the season on April 22. The Islanders will then stay at home that weekend, April 25-27, for its final conference series with Oral Roberts, as the Golden Eagles will head back to the Summit League next year.

On May 2-4, the team will travel across Texas to take on another new member to the Southland, facing Abilene Christian. It will be back to Chapman Field for the final time of the 2014 campaign the next weekend to host Lamar (May 9-11) before going up to Huntsville, Texas, on May 15-17 to take on last year's Southland Tournament champ Sam Houston State to close out the regular season.

After hosting the Southland Conference Tournament at a neutral site last season at Constellation Field in Sugar Land, Texas, last season, the tournament will be back at the home of a Southland school, as it will be played in Conway, Ark. However, the tournament is scheduled to head back to Constellation Field for the 2015 and 2016 seasons.

For updates throughout the season be sure to follow the team on Twitter (@IslandersBSB) and Instagram (Islandersbsb) and like it on Facebook (IslandersBaseball).